The art of the metaphor - Jane Hirshfield

隱喻的藝術 - 珍．赫許費德

Translator: tom carter Reviewer: Bedirhan Cinar

譯者: 楊 承晉 審譯者: Geoff Chen

When we talk, sometimes we say things directly.

我們說話的時候， 有時會採用直接的方式。

"I'm going to the store, I'll be back in five minutes."

「我要去商店，五分鐘內回來。」

Other times though, we talk in a way that conjures up a small scene.

而其他時候，我們會用一種

想像小場景的方式說話，

"It's raining cats and dogs out," we say,

我們說：「外面正在下狗與貓。」 （中譯：外面正在下著傾盆大雨）

or "I was waiting for the other shoe to drop."

或說：「我正在等另一隻鞋掉下來」 （中譯：我正提心吊膽地等待結果）

Metaphors are a way to talk about one thing

隱喻即是透過描述其他東西

by describing something else.

來談論一項事物

That may seem roundabout, but it's not.

這聽起來似乎有點迂迴，但其實並不會。

Seeing and hearing and tasting are how we know anything first.

我們最初就是透過視覺、 聽覺與味覺來感知世界

The philosopher William James described the world of newborn infants

哲學家威廉‧詹姆士 就曾形容新生兒的世界為：

as a "buzzing and blooming confusion."

「盛放且嗡嗡鳴響的疑惑。」

Abstract ideas are pale things

抽象的想法就像蒼白的東西，

compared to those first bees and blossoms.

對上蜜蜂和鮮豔的花朵，

Metaphors think with the imagination and the senses.

隱喻是用想像力和感覺去思考，

The hot chili peppers in them explode in the mouth and the mind.

辣味的辣椒在他們的嘴巴與腦中爆炸。

They're also precise.

他們描述得也很精確。

We don't really stop to think about a raindrop

我們不會停止想像雨滴 是真的貓與狗的大小，

the size of an actual cat or dog,

but as soon as I do,

但我呢，會想像狗是要小隻的－

I realize that I'm quite certain the dog has to be a small one --

a cocker spaniel, or a dachshund --

可卡犬、臘腸狗，而且不是黃金獵犬，

and not a golden Lab or Newfoundland.

或紐芬蘭犬。我想小獵犬是剛好的犬類，

I think a beagle might be about right.

A metaphor isn't true or untrue in any ordinary sense.

隱喻並沒有任何感官上的真假之分。

Metaphors are art, not science,

隱喻是藝術，不是科學， 但我們還是可以辨別其正確與錯誤，

but they can still feel right or wrong.

A metaphor that isn't good leaves you confused.

不好的隱喻會讓你困惑，

You know what it means to feel like a square wheel,

你知道什麼是「感覺像方正的輪胎」，

but not what it's like to be tired as a whale.

但不知道「累得像鯨魚」是什麼。

There's a paradox to metaphors.

這裡有一個隱喻的悖論，

They almost always say things that aren't true.

它們通常都描述著不是真實的東西

If you say, "there's an elephant in the room,"

如果你說：「那裡有一隻大象在房間裡。」

there isn't an actual one,

其實根本沒有大象， 牠也沒有正在尋找裝花生的盤子，

looking for the peanut dish on the table.

Metaphors get under your skin by ghosting right past the logical mind.

隱喻是一個隱約的想法， 通過邏輯思維時出現的。

Plus, we're used to thinking in images.

在這之上，就是我們用想像去思考

Every night we dream impossible things.

每晚我們都夢見不可能的事，

And when we wake up, that way of thinking's still in us.

當我們醒來時，那種想法還在我們腦中

We take off our dream shoes,

我們脫掉夢想的鞋子，

and button ourselves into our lives.

然後把我們扣回自己的生活中，

Some metaphors include the words "like" or "as."

有些隱喻會用「像」或「跟...一樣」、

"Sweet as honey," "strong as a tree."

「和蜂蜜一樣甜」、「和樹一樣強壯」，

Those are called similes.

那些叫作比喻，

A simile is a metaphor that admits it's making a comparison.

比喻是隱喻中用來將事物互相對比的詞，

Similes tend to make you think.

比喻驅使你思考

Metaphors let you feel things directly.

隱喻讓你直覺性的感覺東西，

Take Shakespeare's famous metaphor,

就如莎士比亞說過的隱喻，

"All the world's a stage."

「全世界都是舞台」、「全世界就像舞台」 感覺意義較薄，

"The world is like a stage" just seems thinner, and more boring.

也更加無聊。

Metaphors can also live in verbs.

隱喻也可以與動詞並存，

Emily Dickinson begins a poem,

艾蜜莉‧迪克因森的詩曾有過一句話: 沒辦法的時候，天地就會合一

"I saw no way -- the heavens were stitched --"

and we know instantly

而且我們馬上就知道這種感受， 如果天是一塊正被縫合的布

what it would feel like if the sky were a fabric sewn shut.

他們也可以和形容詞一起使用

They can live in adjectives, too.

「靜水流於深處」，我們描述一個人

"Still waters run deep," we say of someone quiet and thoughtful.

安靜且思考周到。而且「深處」

And the deep matters as much as the stillness and the water do.

和「靜」和「水」都有著一樣的關係，

One of the clearest places to find good metaphors is in poems.

其中一個找到好隱喻的地方就是詩裡

Take this haiku by the 18th-century Japanese poet Issa.

讓我們舉個18世紀的 日文俳句詩「伊薩」為例，

"On a branch floating downriver, a cricket singing."

「在一張長板凳上向下流，蟋蟀正在唱歌。」

The first way to meet a metaphor is just to see the world through its eyes:

第一個遇見隱喻的方法就是 從蟋蟀的角度看世界：

an insect sings from a branch passing by in the middle of the river.

一隻昆蟲在通過中游時在長板凳上唱歌，

Even as you see that though,

即使當你看到了， 一部份的你從圖像中識別出來

some part of you recognizes in the image

一個描繪了這變幻不停的世界的圖像，

a small portrait of what it's like to live in this world of change and time,

our human fate is to vanish, as surely as that small cricket will,

人類的命運終究消逝， 就像那小蟋蟀一樣，

and still, we do what it does.

但我們仍舊做牠做的事。 我們活著，我們唱歌，

We live, we sing.

Sometimes a poem takes a metaphor and extends it,

有時詩會製造隱喻或延伸它，

building on one idea in many ways.

在一個點子上建造不同的東西。

Here's the beginning of Langston Hughes' famous poem

這裡有個連恩斯頓‧哈局斯的著名詩 「母親給兒子的話。」

"Mother to Son."

"Well, son, I'll tell you.

「好吧，兒子，我會告訴你。 對我來說生活並不是沒有水晶梯。

Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

It's had tacks in it, and splinters,

它上面有釘子和碎片，

and boards torn up,

而且地板被撕毀，沒有地毯在上面。」

and places with no carpet on the floor."

Langston Hughes is making a metaphor that compares

連恩斯．頓哈局斯正在創造一個隱喻，

a hard life to a wrecked house you still have to live in.

比較一個艱辛的生活到一間破碎的屋子， 你還得住在裡面

Those splinters and tacks feel real,

那些碎片和釘子感覺很真實，

they hurt your own feet and your own heart,

它們傷害你自己的腳和心，

but the mother is describing her life here,

但母親所描述的是，她的生活，

not her actual house.

而不是她的房子。

And hunger, and cold, exhausting work and poverty

而飢餓、又冷又累的工作和貧窮 就是那些碎片。

are what's also inside those splinters.

Metaphors aren't always about our human lives and feelings.

隱喻並不是永遠都 關乎我們的生活和感受，

The Chicago poet Carl Sandburg wrote,

一個芝加哥詩人卡羅．山德博格曾寫過

"The fog comes on little cat feet.

「霧有如用小貓的腳長走路般。牠坐著觀望 寂靜的碼頭和城市，然後動身。」

It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches,

and then moves on."

The comparison here is simple.

這個對照很簡單

Fog is being described as a cat.

霧被形容是一隻貓

But a good metaphor isn't a puzzle,

但一個好的隱喻並不是謎語

or a way to convey hidden meanings,

或一個傳達隱藏的意思，

it's a way to let you feel and know something differently.

隱喻是一個讓你用 不同的感受去了解東西的方法，

No one who's heard this poem forgets it.

沒有人聽過這首詩後遺忘它，

You see fog,

你看見霧，而它的身邊有一隻灰貓，

and there's a small grey cat nearby.

Metaphors give words a way to go beyond their own meaning.

隱喻給文字一個超出文字本身意思的方法

在門上的手柄是我們所能知道的，

They're handles on the door of what we can know,

and of what we can imagine.

以及我們所能想像到的

Each door leads to some new house,

每扇門都通往某些新房子

and some new world that only that one handle can open.

而有些新世界就只有 唯一一個門把能打開

What's amazing is this:

真正令人讚歎的是：

by making a handle,

藉由做出門把，你就可以創造一個世界。

you can make a world.